The majority of the Liverpool squad succumbed to injury at various intervals last season, with some being more severely affected than others.
Dominik Szoboszlai missed a dozen matches with a hamstring problem in the first two months of this year, and his performances upon returning from that setback paled in comparison to the form he’d shown before then.
The 23-year-old was deemed to have been one of the most underwhelming players at Euro 2024 in some quarters, although the president of the Hungarian FA explained that the Reds midfielder hasn’t been operating at full fitness for quite a while.
Speaking about Liverpool’s number 8 to Nemzeti Sport, Sandor Csanyi said: “He was not in top form at the European Championship. This is also a consequence of the fact that he was not at 100% since his injury in the winter, and in the tournament, he had been struggling with a minor injury for a long time.”
Szoboszlai made 45 appearances for Liverpool in his first season at Anfield, along with 13 caps for his country since his transfer from RB Leipzig last July, and he’d have featured even more had it not been for that hamstring injury.
He was far from the only high-profile player not to hit his peak levels at Euro 2024, which raises a wider question about whether too much is now being asked of elite footballers as the fixture lists seem to grow with each passing year.
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It must be noted that, despite Hungary’s group stage exit in Germany, the Reds midfielder still registered a sumptuous assist in their defeat to Switzerland in the opening game, and he’d surely have made even more of an impact were it not for the ongoing issues that Csanyi cited.
Szoboszlai has now had a well-earned rest following the tournament and is back at the AXA Training Centre to prepare for the forthcoming season with Liverpool.
Hopefully the 23-year-old can now enjoy a full campaign without any injury problems and extrapolate his pre-January performance levels over an extended period at Anfield.
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